Men's tennis breaks 17th-ranked Hurricanes' wave

By Casey Michel     1/29/09 6:00pm

You could say the men's tennis team's 4-3 win over the University of Miami on Sunday was the biggest of the season. You could say the success over the 17th-ranked Hurricanes was the most important match of a seven-week road swing, a victory against the highest-ranked opponent the 24th-ranked Owls have seen yet. You could say that the win will set the tone for the massive road trip, which in turn will set the course of Rice's season. You could say all that. Just don't ask assistant coach Efe Ustundag (Baker '99) to reciprocate your feelings.

"[Winning against] Miami is big, and obviously it was big on Sunday, but it's not going to be [one] of the two biggest matches of the year," Ustundag said. "We still have to play two top-10 teams, plus No. 13 University of Tulsa, No. 14 Pepperdine University . The list goes on. Miami will be just one of the top 15 [contests] of the season."

It is true: Rice's upcoming opponents are dedicated and dangerous. Tomorrow, in the kickoff of the second weekend of their epic seven-week stretch, the Owls travel to Oxford, Miss. to face No. 26 Wake Forest University in the first round of the National Team Indoors tournament.

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Ustundag said the Owls elected to play in Oxford because the host university, the University of Mississippi, lost four of its six starters from 2008, thus presenting the easiest path to the main tournament in May. However, the Rebels reloaded with a ladder that includes freshman Devin Britton at the top and three other ranked teammates following, which led the Southeastern Conference coaches to pick them to win the SEC. And if that were not all, Ole Miss boasts the top-ranked doubles team in the nation, comprised of seniors Jonas Berg and Bram ten Berge.

But before they can face their first top-10 team, the Owls need to get by the Demon Deacons, who have the No. 6 doubles team in Cory Parr and Steven Forman. Rice has never faced Wake Forest during Ustundag's four-year coaching tenure, so the coach's predictions are tempered.

"They're a good team that we haven't crossed paths with before," he said. "The boys are doing well with their work and trying to get some rest at the same time, so I'm hoping that we'll be able to show up and play the right way."

If the Owls have one advantage, it is momentum. They are now standing on a seven-match win streak, helped by last week's pair of wins. Rice got the road weekend started off well in Boca Raton, Fla., against Florida Atlantic University. With one set of Owls facing another team of Owls, Rice stumbled out of the gate and dropped their first doubles point of the year.

Undeterred, seniors Christoph Müller and Toby Scheil and freshmen Sam Garforth-Bles and Christian Saravia rattled off four straight wins to seal the victory for the visitors.

Two days later, the team voyaged to Coral Gables, Fla., to face a team they had beaten at home during 2008 but which was still ranked seven spots higher.

But Miami was without some of the main reasons for their high ranking: No. 17 Daniel Vallverdu missed the match with a strained pectoral muscle, and David Rosenfeld, the team's No. 2 on the depth chart, sat out singles with an injured shoulder.

For junior Bruno Rosa, the injuries were not an advantage so much as they were merely part of the game.

"Every single team, every match, they have some player that's not 100 percent," Rosa, who has known Vallverdu since their early teens, said. "I feel bad about the team, but that's how tennis is, that's how sport is."

Despite the losses, the Hurricanes still put up a valiant effort. After Rice took the doubles point, Miami rallied back for a pair of singles wins over Scheil and junior Chong Wang.

Müller then knotted the score up at 2-2 with a 6-1, 6-3 win over David Simon, and freshman Isamu Tachibana soon gutted out a 6-3, 7-5 win. With his team up 3-2, Rosa downed Christian Blocker, Vallverdu's replacement and a former top 10-ranked player in juniors, to clinch the win.

Müller, who was awarded Conference USA Player of the Week honors on Tuesday, said even though the win came against a shorthanded opponent, the victory was no less sweet.

"The win doesn't count any less," he said. "Every team has to deal with injuries. The fact that we beat them will count just as much. They're going to get their two players back [soon]. It's still hard to play a team like that at their place, but the win is not less valuable."

As the Owls continue their pace at an impressive 7-0, Rosa said he hopes the team can bottle the magic they found in Miami and carry it with them the rest of the way.

"The only thing I hope now is that this energy we had in Miami, this mentality, is what we keep for the rest of the season," Rosa said. "We have a talented team, but talent was not what made us win in Miami . We have to keep this spirit for the whole season.

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